St. Petersburg International Hostel St. Petersburg

Klokka er tidlig når jeg kaver meg ut av silkesoveposen på gardemoen. Det er leven overalt. Jeg går å pusser tennene og tenker på den gode maten vi fikk hoss Pernille kvelden før! Om 2 timer går flyet.. eller gjør det? Etter drøye 2 timer forsinkelse pga dårlig vær letter vi med retning Russland og jeg begynner å forbrede meg på en lang kø med visumsjekk på flyplassen. Hele 2 minutter tar det jo trossalt, takk for den lonely planet forum guys. 1 buss, 2 metro-baner og 10 hyggelige russere sen...

Once we arrived in St Petersburg we walked to the St Petersburg Internation Hostel and made some noodles for lunch.

I was lucky and everything went that it was supposed to. I made into SP and ended up taking a $70 taxi ride from Pulkovo Airport to the hostel, because I was too jet-lagged and extremely afraid of getting lost after only getting about 4 hrs of sleep since I left SF. I totally had a conversation with the driver, he was extremely nice and really got a kick out my attempts at russian speaking, although I have to admit that I was surprised, the Russian class has made my life extremely easy, beca...

Well, somehow I made it through another amazing day in Russia, although the wierdo encounters kept happening. Today we woke up a little later, since we got to the hostel after one in the morning. We decided to go and visit the Dostoyevskiy house museum, and since he is one of my favorite writers, I had been looking forward to ir for a very long time. The place was very hard to find (not really we just kept getting lost and although the locals are extremely nice sometimes they give conflicting...

Well, for the first time in almost a week, I slept in. I missed breakfast which ends at 10 am. Sara, Manami and me, went to the train station to buy the tickets to Moscow (Sara and I will leave on Tuesday night). We went to the ethnographic museum and it was soooooo amazing, they had all kinds of displays with clutural artifacts, I took lots of pics although with Manami's camera, so I won't be able to upload them until I get home. They had a very large display of cultural artifacts and the mo...

Well, today Sara and I woke up, had some breakfast and went to Spilled Blood. It was great being there for a second time, I really took the whole atmosphere in, since I had already taken all the pictures that I wanted. I just relaxed and walked around. The place is trully amazing (for lack of a better word). The weather had been quite hot, and considering that we are carrying our backpacks (small ones not large) around doesn't help. I am seriously considering going to a foot spa. My feet are ...

Today was another great day in this beautiful city. Sara and I took the metro (which I have been finally able to figure out after nearly a week in Petersburg) to Petrogradskaya Storona, which is a large island in front of mainland Petersburg and Vasil Yevskiy Ostrov. We wanted to see Peter the Great's Cabin or "Dacha" where he lived for 6 years while St. Petersburg was being built, but unfortunately the museum was closed on Tuesdays, and today is our last day here, so we have completely misse...

La provodnitsa spalanca la porta del mio scompartimento kupe e accende la luce nel cuore della notte. Mentre cerco svogliatamente di aprire gli occhi scorgo le figure di tre ufficiali russi appena saliti sul treno; senza fare la minima smorfia uno dei tre mi guarda e ordina: "Ïàññïîðò (Passport)!". Benvenuto in Russia. Frugo nello zaino e al contempo cerco di svegliarmi senza sbadigliare in faccia ai poliziotti, finalmente trovo il passaporto e lo consegno ai simpatici doganieri; dopo averlo ...

Flight to St. Peterburg on Ukrainian Airline No hostel reservation. Problem. Wound up near midnight in overpriced Bed and Breakfast. Rainy drizzly every day which is usual. Met Olga Zorina whom I'd met in Helsinki. Helped with registering, finding new hostel, lunch $120. Chinese Consulate closed on Tuesday. Walked along Neva River, several hours in Hermitage Museum, former Czars palace. Museumed , etc out.

After a nice cold morning shower I was ready to face my first day of true sightseeing in the city. For Moscow I decided that some guided tours were in order and I had heard from all my St. Petersburg hostel friends that getting into the Armory was tough so I booked a tour. It met right by Red Square at 10:30 so I headed out of the hostel at about 8 hoping to make it there in time. I was still not brave enough to face the subway so I figured that walking would be my best bet. I found the offic...